Friday, August 28, 2009

Penticton - the first few days

We left Vancouver early Tuesday morning and headed to Penticton along the Hope-Princeton connector. Although traffic was heavier on the connector then I have seen it before, we still made good time. We stopped in Hedley (former gold mining town) for a picnic lunch we had picked up on the way out of town. After another stop to try and see mountain goats (I didn't see any - again), and for some local fruit, we made it to town and our motel early afternoon.

We had dinner reservations at Theo's the first night so we both headed out for a short run before getting ready for dinner. We had eaten at Theo's when we were here last year and I had been looking forward to eating there again. We decided to eat there early in the week as it gets really busy later on. Being that we had made a reservation and it wasn't very busy we were sat at the hostesses favourite table - the Juliet Balcony. It's a great table overlooking the courtyard which was enclosed a few years ago. We started with the seafood salata which was so good I could eat it everynight. Ceviche and salmon mousse. Yum. We both had the kalimarkia entree. I was glad I was hungry! It was all washed down with a bottle of Jackson Triggs Cab Sauv.

Wednesday started off with a swim in Okanagan Lake. I swam from right in front of our motel down to the Peach and back (about 1500m) with only a couple stops. I was a little perturbed at the number of people I was faster than. I hope they were taking it easy because there is a cutoff for the swim afterall.

We followed the swim up with breakfast/brunch at Dream Cafe and then picked up groceries and of course some local beer and wine. Then it was time to ride the run course. Just over 40km ride out to OK Falls and back. Beautiful day, but quite windy!

Thursday morning I did a 45 min run and eventually found the Kettle Valley Trail (KVR) which I had heard of last time we were here. I didn't have my camera and was really sorry and decided to do my long run there on Friday.

The lineup for registration was really long so we decided to try it again later in the day. I guess being that triathletes are generally Type A personalities, everyone wants to be there first thing and get it done. The problem being of course it just makes for longer lines! Instead we decided to head out for some wine tasting. Naramata Bench is literally a couple miles out of downtown Penticton and is home to numerous wineries.

The first stop of the morning was in Naramata after a wrong turn but we ended up finding a little coffee shop that serves our favourite coffee from Vancouver. From there it was on to Therapy Vineyards. Some very good and interesting white wines and we picked up a bottle of Chardonnay. On to Laughing Stock, and a bottle of their Blind Trust Red. The Blind Trust (red & whites) are blends and you don't get to find out the exact blend of that particular year until you open the bottle.

It was about time for lunch and I had read a few recommendations for the restaurant at Hillside Estate Winery. And the recommendations were good. I had a thin crust pizza with grilled pears, caramelized onions, bleu cheese spread (very light but still noticeable) and pine nuts. I also had the wine pairing which was their Old Vines blend. The wine was a little young tasting but the pizza was amazing. The bistro itself is very cute.

Graeme wanted to swim again but I decided I was too lazy so I spent some time relaxing on the beach while he swam. We then headed over to a club members rental house for a get together with people from the club for a BBQ. Over a dozen people showed up and it was a really nice evening. Plus it was nice to be done by 10 and walk the 2 blocks back to our motel.